Staff photo / Brian Yauger Howland’s Vasili Gentis dribbles up the field against Boardman’s Mike Demetrios during their matchup Tuesday night at Boardman High School. The Howland Tigers shut out Boardman 4-0.

BOARDMAN — This season, scoring has been sort of an issue for Howland. The program that historically piles on goals had only scored more than three twice this season.

After Tuesday’s game against Boardman however, that number is now three.

The Tigers potted four, with a few additional shots just missing the net, on 10 shots to take down Boardman 4-0 in a league contest.

“I thought the kids played a great game,” Tigers coach Brian Stiles said. “I wasn’t sure. We had a couple of really good days of practice and sometimes as a coach, you sit there and go, ‘How’s that going to transfer?’ But the kids played outstanding today.”

Those goals are going to lead to an increase in confidence going forward according to Stiles.

“A lot of scoring goals is confidence,” Stiles said. “Sometimes once you get that confidence going, the goals start to come so hopefully you know we’ll see how we do.”

As good as the team was offensively, the defense continued to be the ace in the hole for Howland. They limited the Spartans to four shots on net. While offense may have been a staple of the Howland teams of years’ past, this year’s team is built from the backend.

“I think without question, we are a team that hangs our hat on our defense,” Stiles said.

“That’s what we are and then slowly the attack comes. We sometimes figure towards the end of season you’ll start seeing more goals come just because the kids are used to playing together or whatever else, but we’re definitely a team that we pride ourselves on our backline and our defense.”

Boardman falls to 5-3-3 on the season. The Spartans have been shorthanded all season, so things have been a struggle. It hasn’t been an easy season, but Boardman is powering its way through as best they can.

“That’s a tough one to lose,” Boardman coach Eric Simione said. “Howland is a great team and it’s just a game that we’ll regret because we are not playing to our potential right now with five starters out. It’s just one of those things that 20 years from now you’ll still look back and wonder what could have been if we were healthy. Not just tonight’s game, but just the whole season right now.”

Despite the weather hanging around the low 50s, Howland (10-1-1) will be getting some ice cream for this win. Stiles joked that the team finally started listening after making a deal involving ice cream.

“We were talking about when you go against a great goalkeeper, the more numbers you can get forward, the more difficult it is for him to save those one-on-ones,” Stiles said. “The first goal, we got that second player forward and finished it off. I promised them that I would get them ice cream if somebody did it. And lo and behold they’re actually listening to me once in a while.”

Howland closes out its league slate of games on Oct. 13 in a rematch with the Spartans. Both teams are looking forward to the chance to face the other again, especially at full strength.

“It’s a very good win,” Stiles said. “They’re a little bit banged up right now. We know we will get them again at the end of the season. As they get healthy, they’re going to be just fine. They’ve got way too many good pieces. It’ll be fun to face them.”